Sunday, May 1, 2011

Wild Strawberries!

There's nothing like the taste of wild strawberries! They are so much sweeter and delicious than regular garden strawberries- there's no comparison. This year we got seeds of Alpine Mignonette wild strawberries from Renee's seeds and have plants to offer starting May 7th. They are hardened off and ready to plant.

from Renee's garden website

Information from Renee's Garden website: Alpines can grow in full sun, although in very hot weather areas (Colorado), they will also thrive in half day sun or an area of dappled shade. Like other berries, they love a rich, fertile, and above all, well drained soil. Alpines need little special care beyond consistent moisture and occasional feeding. Mulching the plants to tuck them in and keep roots moist is a good strategy unless snails or slugs are a menace in your garden.
They will produce fruit the first year in the garden.
For more information visit http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/strawberries.html

Contacting WeeBee Farms

WeeBee Farms is a very small farm and is not set up for visitors, or farm tours at this point. Also, I am not big on email, due to lack of time and lack of patience with sitting in front of a computer. Generally, coming to see me on Saturday at the markets is the best way to reach me. When market is over for me in October, I am all sold out- unless I post otherwise on my blog. I have many requests to ship garlic during the season- but we don't ship since I sell out at market every year. If you need to reach me by email here is the address- weebeefarms@gmail.com

WeeBee Farms - Are we organic?

At the farmer's market, we are not allowed to call ourselves organic because we are not certified organic. However, we have been growing by organic standards since 1996. Our garlic fields have not had any chemicals since 1993 when we moved here.Garlic in the field- we enrich the soil with cover crops including buckwheat, rye, wheat, oats, peas, millet and sorghum. Every other year the garlic field is "fallow" and planted with these crops. We also till in some composted llama manure 3 weeks before planting. All garlic "seed" is organically grown. No pesticides or herbicides are ever used. No chemicals at all are used. We use organic seed for our cover crops to avoid pesticide residue that may harm pollinators. We have honey bees on the farm and are very conscious of the effects of the newer long-lasting neonicitinoid class of pesticide.Plants for sale in Spring- For seed starting we start with organic potting soil, mixed with worm castings for good bacteria. When potting up we add in our garden compost or llama/ goat compost. The seeds we buy are mostly organic, with very few exceptions. (Many certified organic growers don't use organic seeds, so it's always good to ask.) We never use Genetically modified seeds or treated seeds or even non-gmo seeds owned by Monsanto. For fertilizer we mostly rely on our homemade compost. Also we use worm castings for our pepper and tomato plants that we test for herbicide residue first, and sometimes our own compost tea.For our compost we use only manure from our own animals which have been fed hay with no herbicide or pesticides, and organic food scraps and other organic feed. This is to avoid any residual contamination from long- lasting herbicides that could harm the plants and long-lasting pesticides that could harm the pollinators that gather pollen from the plants.